“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously …

Music is a rhythmic, ordered sound produced by a synchronized movement – scientifically speaking. But in the realms of art, music is an enchantment. The power of sound enters into the mystic levels, when it alleviates itself into music. The cacophonous, incoherent sounds that otherwise may seem so disordered and incomprehensible, suddenly gain new meaning and importance. Music becomes a language, of the heart, of the soul.Right from my childhood, I seem to have a passion for music. It is beyond my comprehension and in the present situation out of context, to dwell on the whys and wherefores of this. I love classical music. The short but significant 1 year that I spent learning Classical music, did succeed in opening up my mind and heart (ears followed..) to the aarOhaNas and avarOhaNas, the swaras, taaLas, raagas, and bhaavas. My whole being rose up and met the beauty of music.What followed then, was years of association with various forms of music. What is going to follow now, here in this blog, is a journey through them.

Today I was listening to the song “karunaalu baa belake”, and was also reminded of the original english poem “Lead Kindly light” by Newman. What followed was a series of thoughts that meandered about thinking about this whole process of change.Although, it is obvious that the hall mark of the song was certainly not this change. The song is more of a prayer. Nevertheless, it springs forth from this change. The author repents for getting lost and is again asking for the guidance, begging the light (GOD), to not mind his slight waywardness. Well, least of all, I am not intending to write a treatise on this. But what I am wondering is the perils of change. Change signifies the movement from a state of equilibrium to that of activity, restlessness, and chaos or even viceversa. The turbulence is more rampant in the former, as I see it or rather as I am experiencing it.

Why is change so hard to put up with? Is it something in the very nature of everything, to fight or resist the shift? Why is man always clobbered with the issues of morals? change probably wudn’t have been such a bad phenomenon after all, if it didn’t have the strings of morality attached to it. Especially when u r stuck with the choice of choosing between a well settled ill to an off throwing virtue. There is the fear, that broods the heart and eclipses the virtues that it wants to breed.

Words like determination, will power, etc. all seem so hollow. How can man ever fight himself? It takes discipline, and one has to just give in to it. But its always the first step that’s so painful. Its more tougher than asking a total stranger out for the first time. Why is it so? Am i really searching for an answer? I am not quite sure. But for the moment, I just want to throw this question into the void; the vaccum in the space, and just let it adrift, off my mind.

Hmm… rather interesting. Isn’t it? It is like that odd feeling one probably gets, when going out on the first date! To kiss or not to kiss goodnite. This is my first blog, and yet, am quite clueless about what I want to write here! Well things apart, lemme get to the basics, ahem!

Name: Praveen Shivashankar

What am I doing?: Interesting question… and am still clueless about the answer, suffice it to say that I am a Master’s Student.